Labour Peer introduces legislation to deal with late payments
Lobbying lord is launching a private members bill today in the House of Lords in a bid to toughen-up late-paying businesses.
Today (Tuesday 21 January 2020) Labour peer Lord Mendelsohn is introducing a Private Members Bill to the House of Lords, in an effort to tackle late payments and to strengthen the powers of the Small Business Commissioner.
Almost a quarter of insolvencies (23%) are caused by late payment issues. Even for those companies that manage to absorb late payment, the loss of income can stop small businesses from investing and growing, it can also damage productivity and generally has a very negative impact – including on many business owner’s mental health.
Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) has fought a long campaign to tackle this problem by making three major changes. These are:
- that the Prompt Payment Code should be made compulsory for companies with more than 250 staff
- that payment terms should be halved from a maximum of 60 days to a maximum of 30 days
- that a clear, simple financial penalty regime for persistent late payers should be introduced and enforced by the Small Business Commissioner
YouGov polling published by AAT last year showed that almost three quarters (73%) of MPs backed the three AAT recommendations.
Building on the AAT proposals, today Labour Peer Lord Mendelsohn introduces a Private Members Bill to the House of Lords. This Bill promises to introduce a statutory 30-day limit for payment of all invoices, backed up by giving the Small Business Commissioner powers to impose large fines on the worst, persistent offenders.
Lord Mendelsohn’s Bill will also ban the most predatory payment practices like prompt payment discounts, where purchasers demand discounts for prompt payment of invoices; charges for onboarding and staying on supplier lists.
Lord Mendelsohn said: “Late payment is crippling small businesses while the UK economy is crying out for investment. By failing to tackle late payment we are starving our small businesses of the capacity to act. The recent huge escalation in outstanding payments shows that decades of promoting ‘culture change’ has only made things worse. This Bill will tackle the issue once and for all with a package of measures that is operable, impactful and measurable.”
Lighthouse charity sees huge increase in demand for help
The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity has provided £1.13M of charitable services in 2019 and seen a 56% increase in demand for its 24/7 helpline, it has revealed.
The charity saw a rise in the number of construction families needing its wellbeing and financial support in 2019 rising to 2616, with a total of £703,641 of charitable giving to support them. Mental health continues to feature heavily within the charity and as a founder member of the industry’s ‘Building Mental Health’ programme, the charity has been at the forefront of driving momentum to ensure a better mental health culture within the industry. To support this, £411,962 has been spent on the charity’s Education and Training programme with a project managed on behalf of the CITB training 300 Mental Health First Aid Instructors, who in turn have trained over 3,000 Mental Health First Aiders to provide ‘boots on the ground’ support for our construction workforce. Just over £21,000 has been invested in innovation, specifically on the Construction Industry Helpline App which provides vital information, advice and guidance on a variety of wellbeing issues. In response to industry demand, the app is also being developed to meet the needs of companies with major sites and joint venture projects who want to provide additional site-specific real-time information such as details on health and safety briefings and site inductions.
Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity said, “We are working tirelessly to ensure that our construction workers and their families have access to the help they need, Our helpline cards have now been distributed to almost 600,000 of our workforce and our app has been downloaded over 20,000 times.
“We will continue to deliver pro-active interventions to ensure that situations do not reach a life critical stage and our mission is to ensure that no worker feels alone in a crisis. To support our helpline, we have recently introduced professional caseworkers who ensure that applicants receive all the possible support available to them, both from us and other organisations. This means that the charity is spending less per case whilst delivering a more holistic and higher quality service.”
The charity has also recently extended its mental health training to offer an increased variety of construction focussed mental health training, including our ‘lunch and learn’ mental health sessions.
To access the helpline’s team of experts, call the Construction Industry Helpline on 0345 605 1956 or visit www.constructionindustryhelpline.com
All of the information regarding the charity’s helpline services, mental health training, Company Supporters programme and Physical challenges can be found on their website at www.lighthouseclub.org Scaffold firm boss wins top business award
The boss of two Milton Keynes based scaffolding firms has been awarded the SME National Business Award for Mentoring.
Matt Bowler, MD of MK Scaffolding Specialists and Vantage Event Structures was awarded the Gold Award at Wembley, in recognition for his work with young people and ex-offenders.NASC launches £30K mental health first aid training fund
The National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) has set up a £30,000 funding pot dedicated to mental health first aid training.
The new fund gives its members the ability to claim up to £125 towards the cost of a mental health first aid course. The funding pot was created in conjunction with the trade body’s Head for Heights campaign that was set up in 2018. The campaign focused on breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health and promoting the importance of focusing on employee wellbeing in the workplace. It’s recent activity included the creation of SG38:19, free NASC guidance on mental health and wellbeing. “The £30,000 funding pot will help pay for nearly 250 NASC member employees to complete a mental health first aid course,” Lynn Way, NASC president said. “This will go a long way to improving awareness and understanding of mental health and wellbeing issues in the workplace and enable NASC members to better support their employees if and when they need to. “The Head for Heights campaign has been incredibly well-received by NASC members, who are as keen to do more to support anyone in the industry who’s dealing with a mental health challenge. There’s much more to come from us on this front in the year ahead.” The NASC has said, there are currently four mental health first aid training courses covered by the £30,000 funding pot. These are offered by MHFA England, St John Ambulance, 3B Training and the British Safety Council. The creation of the fund comes just a month after the trade body launched a £150,000 fund dedicated to training and upskilling former servicemen.Storm Brendan brings down tower block scaffolding
A number of cars have been damaged and roads closed after a large scaffold fell from a tower block in Orpington, London.
High winds brought in by Storm Brendan ripped down the reported 10 lift scaffold at around 8:30pm last night (January 14). Emergency services attended the scene but no injuries have been reported. The fallen scaffold was left lying over the tower’s car park and an adjacent road, blocking it off to traffic. A dramatic video was posted online showing the aftermath of the scaffold collapse. The scaffolding had been erected for the purpose of repairing the balconies on the southeast London tower block. Although not confirmed News Shopper has reported that the scaffold was tied into the fabric of the tower block. However, it would seem these ties failed. Residents living in the tower block also told Journalists that weekly inspections had been carried out on the structure.Sheffield’s £500m plans to improve buildings & council housing
Sheffield City Council has laid out plans to spend £500m on building and improving council housing over the next five years.
The spending plan has been laid out in the council’s housing revenue account (HRA) business plan for 2020/2021, according to The Construction Index. In 2019 Sheffield City Council committed to providing 1,600 new council homes by 2023/24 and this year this is being extended by an additional 1,500, taking the total to 3,100 new council homes over the next 10 years. The biggest investment in the plan is in the form of improving the city’s existing council house stock. This includes updating kitchens, bathrooms, windows, doors, roofs and improving communal areas. Councillor Paul Wood, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety at Sheffield City Council, said: “We have ambitious plans to provide housing that gives people options, meets the demand and varying needs of our residents, and creates thriving communities. “The truth is there isn’t sufficient affordable housing in the city, we don’t have enough options available within our council housing stock and we need to maintain the quality of tenants’ existing homes. “We are tackling all of these issues head on, investing millions of pounds to make sure people in Sheffield have suitable, well maintained homes that they can afford and be proud of. “As well as all of these benefits to our housing offer, this level of investment over the next few years will also create hundreds of employment and apprenticeship opportunities for local people, providing essential jobs and up-skilling our future tradespeople.”Specialist printer’s ultra-realistic Somerset House scaffold wrap
Somerset House in London has been covered in an ultra-realistic scaffold wrap.
The iconic Neoclassical façade of Somerset House is instantly recognizable overlooking the Southside of the Thames. And while the building is currently undergoing some restoration work, you may not have noticed thanks to the ultra-realistic scaffold wrap that covers the construction work beneath. The man behind this impressive faux façade says it’s been one of his most challenging jobs to date, involving countless hours of photo-editing, printing and installation by skilled professionals. “This type of wrap is called a trompe L’oeil building wraps and they are somewhat of a specialised craft,” explains Project Print Management (PPM) owner and creator, Justin Murray. “The process begins with a team of engineers and designers collecting accurate measurements and photos of the building façade, which are then carefully edited to create the perfect realistic perspective, colour and scale. A framework is then built over the building scaffolding that will hold the printed wrap exactly in place to create the optical illusion during the construction work. Our team then coordinates a skilled specialist rope access team to install the enormous print on the frame.”Scaffold Wrap is digitally printed for Somerset House
The scaffold wrap was digitally printed on 5-meter-wide format printer using UV ink technology onto Verseidag mesh PVC banner material, which can let the wind pass through. These types of facade building wraps are often used when historical buildings are undergoing refurbishment or maintenance work.
Since these buildings are often visited by tourists, it’s important they maintain their characteristic visual aesthetic, so the scaffold wraps cover up any unsightly scaffolding, making it almost invisible.
Somerset House is one such grade 1 listed building, open to the public and regularly hosting exhibitions and events throughout the year from ice-skating in the winter to the Film4 summer screenings, where the courtyard is transformed into a stunning open-air cinema, housing London’s largest open-air screen.
“Most of our work is on period buildings, and it’s always challenging to get our print to visually represent the actual building. This is the ‘art’ of the process – making it look like nothing’s there,” says Murray.
He founded PPM in 2011 after leaving the print company he had started at age 19 and run for 18 years, deciding to become a specialist large-format creative print coordinator.
10 Years of Creatives Talents for Justin
Almost 10 years on and Justin is still enjoying using his business experience and creative talents for a range of exciting large format printing challenges, including his specialty of trompe L’oeil building wraps. “Lots of companies handle quite complex large-format print jobs, but not many do the kind of thing we specialise in at PPM,” enthuses Murray, who has created building wraps for clients including; The Monument to the Great Fire of London, Everton Football Club Stadium and the BNP Paribas building.New CISRS Smart cards delayed until mid February
CISRS tells industry to ‘bear with us’ after delays with its new Smart card system emerges.
The Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) has this afternoon contacted training providers to notify them of a delay to the production of its new Smart cards. The new digital cards will not be available until mid-February. The new cards were supposed to be in production this month after NOCN Job Cards took over from the CITB when it withdrew from providing the card scheme administration services on 2nd December 2019. When they are available, the revamped cards will use NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. When the Smart card is tapped on any NFC enabled device like modern mobile phones and tablets, the cardholder’s name, photo, courses, and endorsements will magically appear on the screen of the device. It’s understood that the ‘change of IT systems’ is being blamed for the current delay. According to an email seen by ScaffMag, the new system with NOCN job cards is not properly able to access the 40+ years of CISRS data and is proving more problematic than CISRS envisaged. Further testing is currently being carried out while extra staff has been drafted in to help alleviate the backlog of CISRS card applications, the email reads. Interim non-Smart cards will be issued until the new system is fully functional. These will be then replaced with Smart cards free of charge, it says. CISRS has also stated, if employers or individuals want to confirm someone has completed training or applications have been received, they can call the helpline 0844 815 7223. Alternatively, they can email [email protected] and put “CISRS confirmation of application” in the subject line so that it gets to the correct team. Dave Mosley CISRS Manager reached out to ScaffMag and said: “It is not the start to the new year and the new scheme we were hoping for and I realise it is very frustrating for all concerned. “We apologise for the inconvenience caused and ask that the scaffolding sector and the wider industry to bear with us a few more weeks until the issues can be resolved.”Scaffolder set to enter dating reality TV show
Scaffolder Callum Jones is due to appear on ITV’s hit TV show Love Island.
The 23-year-old scaffolder from Manchester is employed by Connolly Scaffolding Ltd. He is set to enter Love Island’s swanky Cape Town villa this coming Sunday.
